Enabling blue osmotic–green hydrogen energy coupling

Project Description: The rapidly increasing demand for energy associated with our lifestyle, changes in climate linked to emissions from fossil fuel combustion processes, and global geopolitical instability require dramatic advances in alternative forms of energy that are clean, accessible, affordable, sustainable, and reliable. Among these, blue energy—osmotic power retrieved from the difference in salt concentration between two solutions separated by an ion exchange membrane—is considered a promising resource of renewable energy due to its high theoretical power yield (i.e., 0.8 kW h m^–3). Recent advances in nanofabrication have enabled a new generation of membranes with engineered nanopores that exceed the commercial energy benchmark threshold of 5 W m^–2. However, the working area of these systems is constrained to the microscale (i.e., 1 mm² = 1∙10^–12 m²) and the power output is limited to electrical energy, making them impractical for real-life applications. Therefore, fundamental advances in membrane technology are urgently needed if we are to fully unlock the potential of blue energy as a real alternative source of renewable power. But how do we meet this technological need? Electric eels have an innate ability to generate up to 600 V action potential for hunting and self-defence. This remarkable ability relies on electrocytes—cells with the ability to generate high power electrical pulses by regulating the flux of ions across their membrane.

The hypothesis underpinning this project is that the bottlenecks preventing existing blue energy technology from real-life applications (i.e., limited working area, high flux resistance, reduced ionic selectivity) can be overcome by mimicking the unique electro-generation ability of natural structures in electric eels. By combining synthetic hierarchical nanopore structures with novel architectures and functional chemical features to reduce flux resistance and maximise ionic flow selectivity, this new platform will be capable of attaining unprecedented osmotic power generation over extended working areas. The project will also explore new ways of coupling blue energy power with photocatalytic systems to boost the generation of green hydrogen energy—a crucial step in enabling blue energy as a future-proof renewable resource. At a more fundamental level, we will seek to understand these interactions and develop models that describe mechanistically functions in synthetic blue–green energy generators.

Student Requirements: The candidate will preferably have a Master degree in a related field and publications (recommended). The successful candidate will join a team of expert researchers seconded from The University of Adelaide for a PhD position. His/Her skillset will complement the University's considerable existing expertise in renewable energy generation and materials engineering.

Supervisor: The project will be supervised by A/Prof. Abel Santos (https://www.adelaide.edu.au/directory/abel.santos#). He has demonstrated

national and international research standings in nanofabrication and applied photonics, and unique expertise in fabricating nanostructures with precisely engineered features at the nanoscale for specific applications through anodisation. He has an excellent track-record of publications >117 research articles) in top international journals, and a strong history of successful competitive grants (>$9.6M) including one ARC DECRA, two ARC DPs, four ARC LIEFs, one APRIL Innovation and Commercialisation Project, and one Australia–India Research Strategic Grant. He has mentored and supervised three ECRs and 15 PhDs (seven completions and eight current). Internationally, he has been recognised as one of world’s 2% researchers by Stanford University (since 2019), emerging investigator by the editorials of Journal of Materials Chemistry C (2017) and ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces (2021), and holds an adjunct visiting professorship at his alma mater university (URV, Spain) in recognition of his significant contributions over the past ten years. He has strong experience in industrial engagement and translation of findings, project management, and international collaboration. He will lead this aspect of the project and oversee the experimental design, manuscript preparation, dissemination of results, and supervision.

Facilities: During the last twelve years our team has built research infrastructure, including four ARC LIEF grants, and established a substantial suite of fabrication and characterisation facilities; these are cutting-edge environments in nanofabrication and optical and electrochemical chemo- and biosensing, including two fully computerised semi-industrial anodisation stations, two electrochemical workstations, two metal and oxide coating systems, 3D printing microfluidic chips, optical microscope coupled with optical fibre spectrometer, digital imaging characterisation, and several UV–visible–NIR spectrometers. Beyond our own independent research laboratory, we have access to a broad range of world-class nanofabrication and characterisation facilities. UoA’s CHEM ENG provides an outstanding research environment with an analytical laboratory worth >$15M, which houses over 40 items of equipment, including research infrastructures of relevance to the proposed research (ALD, Raman, FTIR, PL, XRD, TGA–MS/FTIR, HPLCs, Mastersizer, DLS, BET). UoA also hosts the centre for Advanced Microscopy and Microanalysis (Adelaide Microscopy), which enables access to state-of-the-art SEMs, EDAX, TEMs, and HRTEM. Further to that, as members of the Institute for Photonics and Advanced Sensing (IPAS) our research group has access to multiple research infrastructures across different Schools, Departments, and Research Institutes, such as the School of Electronic Engineering (THz spectroscopy characterisation facility), the Department of Chemistry (NMR 600 MHz with cryoprobe and 500 MHz with autosampler spectrometers), and IPAS (Optofab Node of ANFF with IR and visible ellipsometers, optical profilers). Our team has also access to the research infrastructures located at the central facilities of the South Australian and Victorian nodes of the Australian National Fabrication Facility (ANFF–SA and –VIC), which are world-class nanofabrication centres with >$100M investment in micro- and nanotechnology infrastructure, including cleanrooms classes 10,000 and 100, photolithography and nanolithography, and deposition systems at subsidised costs.

Scholarship: The University of Adelaide offers competitive Research Scholarships of $AU 32,500 p.a. Candidates will have to apply to gain a scholarship